Syracuse or UCSC?

College Search & Selection
1

I realize that these two colleges are vastly different but I’m not sure what college I should be looking for or better yet, what I should be looking for in a college. I’m incredibly interested in environmental sciences and journalism which is a major that my college has to have (whether it be communications or journalism) and was thinking about Syracuse’ Newhouse school of comm. I chose these two colleges because maybe someone can explain to me just exactly how vastly different these two colleges are.

I’m into school spirit so college sports is a sort-of-must but I’m concerned that Syracuse is just a party school much like UCSC is just a 4/20 blaze it school. These are stereotypes, obviously, but I guess I’m just wondering about the culture between the two schools and whether or not journalism is an incredible program at Syracuse that would negate the party atmosphere and whether environmental sciences is an amazing major at UCSC that would negate its less than stellar reputation. Any advice would be great. Stats if you want them…

Are there any other colleges I could be looking at?

ACT: 27
GPA: (3.45 UW) (3.90W)
Pretty much as many AP and IB classes as I could handle.
Major newspaper internship over summer.

2

I don’t see why you think UCSC has a bad reputation. Sure, it’s known for its hippie culture, but both Syracuse and UCSC have very good reputations overall.

I can’t specifically say about journalism or environmental sciences, but “negating” UCSC’s reputation is not something you should be concerned about.

3

I wasn’t saying UCSC has a bad reputation, I didn’t mean it like that. But could you say that the vibes from Syracuse are similar to UCSC?

4

One is a beautiful coastal state university in California, the other is a private university located in one of the coldest, if not THE very coldest city in the continental United States. Their differences couldn’t be more polarizing.

5

UCSC’s reputation dims a bit in comparison to its showy siblings but it’s a terrific school and many of its programs, including enviro sciences are top notch. It’s a bit of a reach or high match but absolutely go for it.

I see you’re in-state for California, so look into some of the CSU’s which have excellent programs in both journalism/communication and environmental studies. Maybe SDSU.